The Multimodal Text


The many modes of the representation and forms of text present a challenge to develop the literacies of students. These are multiliteracies and need to be developed to be able to analyse and evaluate the multimodal text. The Multimodal text is one where meaning is conveyed by more that one mode.

Dual voiced
  • Text
  • Image

The multimodal text works through the fact of communication through more than one mode.
  • Iconic
    • reading the symbols
    • requiring cultural knowledge
    • developing an understanding of the intertextual
  • Conventional
    • the linear written text

Breaking the visual code:

What can you read into the elements of the visual, thinking of issues such as
  • colour
  • frame
  • line
  • angle
  • perspective
  • vectors
  • modalities
  • postion of the viewer

The metafictive

Some of the things to consider when looking at picture books are that
  • the verbal and visual elements often contradict
  • meaning is constructed from the juxtaposition of the text
  • the distinction between popular and high culture is blurred
  • there are blurred boundaries between genre categories
  • blurred relationship between the author, narrator, illustrator, reader
  • multiple pathways
  • literary traditions / conventions subverted
  • intertextuality often explicit, metatextual (Derouet, 2010)
Check out this great discussion of multimodality from the ETA Conference:- Multimodality - pedagogy and practice